Category Archives: Adventure

Horst Faas, a prize-winning combat photographer who set new standards for covering war with a camera, has died aged 79.

The German, who joined US-based news agency The Associated Press (AP) in 1956, photographed wars, revolutions and Olympic Games.

But he was best known for covering Vietnam, where he was severely wounded in 1967 and won four major photo awards including the first of his two Pulitzer Prizes.

Combat zone: US Army helicopters pour machine gun fire into a tree line to cover an advance by South Vietnamese troops in this March 1965 photo by Horst Faas

As chief of AP’s photo operations in Saigon for a decade starting in 1962, Faas covered the fighting while recruiting and training new talent from among foreign and Vietnamese freelancers.

The result was ‘Horst’s army’ of young photographers, who fanned out with Faas-supplied cameras and film and stern orders to ‘come back with good pictures’.

Faas and his editors chose the best and put together a steady flow of telling photos – South Vietnam’s soldiers fighting and its civilians struggling to survive amid the maelstrom.

Captivating: Women and children crouch in a muddy canal as they take cover from Vietcong fire at Bao Trai, 20 miles west of Saigon, Vietnam. The January 1, 1966 image is another captured by Horst Faas

Among his top proteges was Huynh Thanh My, an actor turned photographer who in 1965 became one of four AP staffers and one of two South Vietnamese among more than 70 journalists killed in the 15-year war.

My’s younger brother, Huynh Cong ‘Nick’ Ut, followed his brother at AP and under Faas’s tutelage won one of the news agency’s six Vietnam War Pulitzer Prizes, for his iconic 1972 picture of a badly burned Vietnamese girl fleeing an aerial napalm attack.

Faas, who dies in Munich yesterday, was a brilliant planner – able to score journalistic scoops by anticipating ‘not just what happens next but what happens after that’, as one colleague put it.

‘Legendary’: Horst Faas, pictured right in Vietnam in 1967

His reputation as a demanding taskmaster and perfectionist belied a humanistic streak he was loath to admit, while helping less fortunate ex-colleagues and other causes.

He was widely read on Asian history and culture, and assembled an impressive collection of Chinese Ming porcelain, bronzes and other treasures.

In later years Faas turned his training skills into a series of international photojournalism symposiums.

Faas also helped to organise reunions of the wartime Saigon press corps, and was attending a combination of those events when he became ill in Hanoi on May 4 2005.

Lt Col George Eyster of Florida is placed on a stretcher after being shot by a Vietcong sniper at Trung Lap, South Vietnam on January 16, 1966

He was hospitalised first in Bangkok and then in Germany, where doctors traced his permanent paralysis from the waist down to a spinal haemorrhage caused by blood-thinning heart medication.

Although requiring a wheelchair, he continued to travel to photo exhibits and other professional events, mainly in Europe.

Faas also made two arduous trips to the United States, in 2006 and 2008.

His health deteriorated in late 2008. Hospitalised in February for treatment of skin problems, he also underwent gastric surgery.

Faas’ Vietnam coverage earned him the Overseas Press Club’s Robert Capa Award and his first Pulitzer in 1965.

Wounded in action: US soldiers are treated on a battlefield in Vietnam on April 2, 1967

Receiving the honours in New York, he said his mission was to ‘record the suffering, the emotions and the sacrifices of both Americans and Vietnamese in … this little bloodstained country so far away’.

Burly but agile, Faas spent much time in the field and on December 6, 1967, was wounded in the legs by a rocket-propelled grenade at Bu Dop, in South Vietnam’s Central Highlands.

He might have bled to death had not a young US Army medic managed to stem the flow.

He often teamed with Pulitzer Prize-winning AP reporter Peter Arnett to produce powerful and exclusive reports such as the 1969 story of Company A, an army unit that balked at orders to move against the enemy.

Nightswimming: Hong Kong by night, as seen from the pool at the Ritz-Carlton in Hong Kong

How about some of these spas for a relaxing break?

Not much good if you have vertigo – admittedly, but once the nausea subsides, you can chill by the pool in your robe, or get a massage as you watch the world go by beneath you.

The Top 10 spas with a spectacular views have been compiled by German building information specialists, Emporis, with the Ritz-Carlton Spa by ESPA in Hong Kong (above) topping the list.

Located inside the 465-meter tall International Commerce Centre, the spa is part of the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong and includes an indoor swimming pool with panoramic views over Victoria Harbour from 116 floors above the ground.

The Top 10 were chosen from over 400 spas in cities around the world, and were rated on factors such as the spa’s height, view, location, architectural features and interior design.

According to Emporis, the last decade has seen an increasing number of luxury hotel spas opening at spectacular heights, as they try to offer visitors a “contemporary and holistic oasis” in busy city centres.

Asian megacities dominate the Top 10 as their dramatic skylines and bustling business centres provide a steady stream of weary working travellers looking to relax with the backdrop of a breathtaking view.

Coming in second place on the list was the the Banyan Tree Spa in Singapore, set atop the 207-meter Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore. It attracts visitors with its stunning infinity pool that overlooks Singapore’s skyscrapers.

In third place, Spa at the Mandarin Oriental is located on the 37th and 38th floors of the Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower, with dizzying views of Tokyo’s financial district.

3rd: Spa at Mandarin Oriental in the Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower, Tokyo

“The latest trend in the tourism industry allows travellers to unwind and to enjoy an incredible view of the city; relaxation and sightseeing are perfectly combined,” commented Matthew Keutenius, architecture expert at Emporis.

When the lifts shut down in America’s mountain towns, out come the flip-flops, microbrews, and inner tubes. For a real recharge this summer, spend some time at our favorite high-altitude hotels, restaurants, and outfitters.by Robert Earle Howells

Steamboat Springs, Colorado

StayHotel Bristol
With its downtown setting and Old West flavor, the Hotel Bristol is like walking into a Zane Grey novel.

EatSweetwater Grill
The owners of the Sweetwater Grill used lottery winnings to create their dream restaurant on the banks of the Yampa River. Fresh local fare with ethnic flourishes.

OutfitterSteamboat Flyfisher
When a world-class river flows through town, you’ve got to toss it a fly. A half-day float trip will set you back $325.

For details on MJ-endorsed hotels, restaurants, and outfitters in Truckee, California, click here.

The GeoEye-1 satellite is capable of capturing details as small as a dustbin as it hurtles past our planet at 17,000mph – and its creators have hand-picked views that show off the majesty of our planet.

It captures around 270,000 square miles of Earth’s surface ever day – an amount of geographical data equivalent to the size of the State of Texas.

This image shows ice fields near Adelaide Island (on the west) which is a large, mainly ice-covered island, 75 miles long and 20 miles wide, lying at the north side of Marguerite Bay off the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula

Towra Point Nature Reserve located on the southern shores of Botany Bay at Kurnell, within the Sutherland Shire, in southern Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Towra Point consists of 603.3 hectares (1,491 acres) and is situated on an ancient river delta deposit

Space Shuttle Endeavour on Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida, awaiting launch to the International Space Station - its last flight

Markings on the ground in Xinjiang China. Such satellite images are often the subject of conspiracy theories - but are usually used to calibrate satellite imagers

U.S. troops sit tightly beside one another in a packed aircraft as they await their departure to Afghanistan, in stunning pictures taken today.

The servicemen sit aboard the military plane at the U.S. Transit Centre in Manas, 30 km outside Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek.

The onward movement of personnel to and from Afghanistan is one of the four mission pillars of the centre that is used as a transit hub for about 15,000 troops, planes and 500 tons of cargo a month. The other three are airlift, aerial refueling and humanitarian assistance.

Tight: US servicemen inside a military plane before their departure to Afghanistan from the US transit center in Manas, 30 km outside Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek, on March 27, 2012

Close-up: Dozens of U.S. servicemen interact with each other while holding their rifles and belongings

US servicemen perform their daily routines on the runway at the US Transit Center in Manas, 30 km outside the Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek, on March 27, 2012